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Who We Are

Board & Staff

Stephanie Berger is the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director, and a co-founder of The Poetry Society of New York. She is also a poet and performance artist. She is co-creator with Nicholas Adamski of The Poetry Brothel, The New York City Poet… — Stephanie Berger (she/her) is the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director, and a co-founder of The Poetry Society of New York. She is also a poet and performance artist. She is co-creator with Nicholas Adamski of The Poetry Brothel, The New York City Poetry Festival, & The Typewriter Project. She is the author of IN THE MADAME’S HAT BOX (Dancing Girl Press, 2011) & co-author with Carina Finn of THE GREY BIRD: THIRTEEN EMOJI POEMS IN TRANSLATION (Coconut Books, 2014). With Jackie Braje, she founded Milk Press, a publisher & nurturer of poetic collaborations. Her work is largely collaborative, interactive, & community-oriented; & it straddles the worlds of literature, immersive theatre, & public art. Stephanie earned a B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Southern California, received an M.F.A. in Poetry from the New School, & taught in the English Department at Pace University.

Jackie Braje (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based poet, a friend of poets, educator, and arts administrator. She currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the Poetry Society of New York. With Stephanie Berger, she co-founded Milk Press—the publishing arm of PSNY— and serves as the editor-in-chief.
Her work has been published or featured by Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn Poets, Free People, the Minnesota Review, the Oakland Review, the Westchester Review, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Statorec, the Quarterless Review, the Nottingham Review, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere.
She is the Allerton Park Fall ‘22 Artist-in-Residence, a 2022 collaborator and artist-in-residence with the 4heads initiative on Governors Island, and the recipient of a 2022 Himan Brown Award. She received her MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, where she also taught as an adjunct English professor.

Tova Greene (they/them) is a proud representative of the intern to staff member pipeline at The Poetry Society of New York. They are a non-binary, queer, Jewish poet who graduated in May of 2022 with a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. One of seven senior thesis candidates in the class of 2022, they specialized in the intersection of twentieth century American poetry and feminist theory, with a sprinkle of Greek and Roman antiquity and dramatic literature. They are the author of the collection lilac on the damned's breath (Bottlecap Press, 2022), and their second collection, ohso, is coming out via Indie Earth Publishing in early 2023. Their poem "snowed like this on fulton street" was nominated for Sundress Publications "Best of the Net" awards. Their work has been featured in Eunoia Review, Midway Journal, West Trade Review, and others. For more information, please see https://linktr.ee/tovagreene.

Stephanie Berger
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Anna Genevieve Winham (she/her) is an award-winning writer who serves as the Development Director for PSNY, the EIC for Passengers Journal, and the Marketing Director for EdTech startup Biblionasium. She also performs in the Poetry Brothel, and she previously edited Oxford Public Philosophy. Anna writes at the crossroads of science and the sublime, cyborgs and the surreal, and you’ll find her work in Ninth Letter, New York Quarterly, the Oxford Review of Books, Brooklyn Magazine, and Meetinghouse Magazine online among others. While attending Dartmouth College (which was the pits), she won the Stanley Prize for experimental essay and the Kaminsky Family Fund Award. She’s working on her novel—ask her about it, if you dare.

Anna Genevieve Winham
Development Director

Keighly Baron
HR Director

Leon Barros (he/they) is a Brooklyn-based Filipinx poet and editor. Their work has appeared and is forthcoming in ANMLY, Annulet, A Velvet Giant, DiaCRITICS, and more. Their work has previously been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize, and they are currently working on a full-length tentatively titled Greenworld.

Leon Barros
Milk Press Managing Editor

Lucas Hunt is the president of HUNT Auctioneers and a celebrated American poet. He graduated from World Wide College of Auctioneering, has a Benefit Auctioneer Specialist (BAS) designation from the National Auctioneer’s Association, and has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars and awareness for non-profit organizations. — Lucas Hunt (he/him) is the president of HUNT Auctioneers and a celebrated American poet. He graduated from World Wide College of Auctioneering, has a Benefit Auctioneer Specialist (BAS) designation from the National Auctioneer’s Association, and has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars and awareness for non-profit organizations.

Lucas Hunt
Board Member

Jackie Braje
Chief Operating Officer

A regular cast member of the Poetry Brothel since 2015, Emi Bergquist (she/her) is a seasoned writer, poet, content creator, and social media strategist with over 5 years experience in media and marketing. Emi is passionate about creating spaces of community and engagement. Proud dog mom to her two year old rescue pup, Zola, who is part Pitbull, part Cattle-Dog, and 100% a very good girl.

Emi Bergquist
Social Media Director

Natalee Cruz (she/her) is a poet and fiction dual MFA at the New School. She has been published in The Spectacle, The Ilanot Review, The Thing Itself, Sazerac Smokey Ink, and Electric Literature. Her chapbook, I Have Seen the Bluest Blue, is available through Ugly Duckling Presse.

Natalee Cruz
Milk Press Editor-in-Chief

Born in a blizzard in NY with the gifts of premonition and manifestation, Bernadette McComish (she/her) is an educator and fortuneteller. She earned an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence and an M.A. in TESOL from Hunter College. Her poems have appeared in The Cortland Review, For Women Who Roar, Slipstream, Flypaper Magazine, Peregrine, and a finalist for the New Millennium Writers 41st poetry prize. Her chapbook— The Book of Johns was published in 2018 by Dancing Girls Press, and her second chapbook was published in 2021 by Lily Poetry Review. She teaches High School in LA, and performs poetry, and produces shows with The Poetry Society of New York making poetry accessible to everyone.

Bernadette McComish
Immersive Events Manager

Meredith Starkman (she/her) is an actor, writer, and political strategist. She has worked across India, Brazil, and the U.S. facilitating arts programming in prisons and juvenile detention facilities. She is currently an Advance Associate for The White House and serves as the Director of Strategic Planning for Streets For All, a Los Angeles non-profit working to expand sustainable transportation and decarbonize the city. Meredith narrates audiobooks for Brilliance Publishing, hosts the New York Poetry Festival, and believes in the power of poetry to transform people’s lives.

Meredith Starkman
Board Member

Darby Mae Wagner (she/her) is an English and French speaking bon vivant who uses her skills and experience as a writer, wine and hospitality professional, and creative strategist to support her ongoing artistic endeavors—and mitigate the madness of living in an increasingly unaffordable world. In 2021, she founded GNOSES, a creative studio where ideas are explored and sometimes brought to life—one such example being the co-production of Wine Poetic. Experientially, GNOSES is a collaborative series of bespoke artistic and epicurean experiences that celebrate and explore community, art, literature, ancestral traditions, and local activism, all in their various forms. GNOSES also finds a home on Substack, where Darby’s musings (essays, abstract narratives, poetry, and the like) are published freely and irregularly. Check out SWURL Media for her ongoing series, 'Alter Egos' where she profiles some of the most commonly known grapes and suggests their lesser known alternatives. And for other examples of her published works, go here.

Darby Mae Wagner
Wine Poetic Co-Producer

Tova Greene
Programs Director

Kyle Studstill (he/him) has been an NYC-based digital and social strategist for the past 12 years, working closely with high-profile brands that include PepsiCo, Belvedere, Hennessy, and AstraZeneca. His work blending creative storytelling with business innovation has been featured in Fast Company, Monocle Magazine, CreativeMornings and Yahoo Business. As a performance poet he has been featured by Inspired Word NYC and the Poets Afloat residency program.

Kyle Studstill
Marketing Director

Shari Caplan (she/her) is the siren behind 'Advice from a Siren’ (Dancing Girl Press). Her poems have swum into Gulf Coast, Painted Bride Quarterly, Angime, Drunk Monkeys, and elsewhere. Shari’s work has earned her a scholarship to The Home School, a fellowship to The Vermont Studio Center, nominations for a Bettering American Poetry Award, and a Pushcart Prize. She proudly serves as Madam Betty BOOM for The Poetry Brothel in Boston. Keep up with her at ShariCaplan.com

Shari Caplan
Boston Poetry Brothel Producer

Gregg Emery received his Bachelor of Arts with departmental distinction from Hartwick College and a Masters in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, where he studied under Babe Shapiro, Power Boothe, Hermine Ford, Sam Gilliam and Sal Scarpitta. He is currently the Chair of the Visual Arts at the Trinity School, a private, coeducational K-12 school in Manhattan. Emery enjoys teaching art & art history, sharing his knowledge and experience with a younger generation. His artwork is included in numerous private and public collections including the permanent collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. It has also been featured in exhibits worldwide including Beijing, Belgium and, most recently at the Governor’s Island Art Fair, Pier 94, SCOPE Miami and even on Season 2 of the hit show, The Last O.G. Along with his large scale abstractions, Emery continues his practice of drawing from life wherever he goes and can often be seen sketching the people of New York from subway cars, to restaurants, bars, shows and, for the past 6 years, he has been the ‘official painter’ of the New York City Poetry Brothel. — Gregg Emery (he/him) received his Bachelor of Arts with departmental distinction from Hartwick College and a Masters in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, where he studied under Babe Shapiro, Power Boothe, Hermine Ford, Sam Gilliam and Sal Scarpitta. He is currently the Chair of the Visual Arts at the Trinity School, a private, coeducational K-12 school in Manhattan. Emery enjoys teaching art & art history, sharing his knowledge and experience with a younger generation. His artwork is included in numerous private and public collections including the permanent collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. It has also been featured in exhibits worldwide including Beijing, Belgium and, most recently at the Governor’s Island Art Fair, Pier 94, SCOPE Miami and even on Season 2 of the hit show, The Last O.G. Along with his large scale abstractions, Emery continues his practice of drawing from life wherever he goes and can often be seen sketching the people of New York from subway cars, to restaurants, bars, shows and, for the past 6 years, he has been the ‘official painter’ of the New York City Poetry Brothel.

Gregg Emery
Board Member

Alan Keegan
Board Member

Partners & Funders

Open Late Digital

Radio Drama Network

Hunt Philanthropy

Brooklyn Brewery

Poetry Foundation

Academy of American Poets

Poets & Writers

Cavankerry Press